"Times have moved on" - Exeter Chiefs ban chant as expensive rebrand continues - Ruck

“Times have moved on” – Exeter Chiefs ban chant as expensive rebrand continues

Exeter Chiefs expensive rebrand to distance themselves from their previously popular Native American branding has seen the club ban their ‘Tomahawk Chop’ chant.

The chant had become a regular part of the match-day experience with the song played over the loudspeakers while the crowd sing along and perform a ‘chopping’ motion with their hands.

“We made the choice to do it this year ready for next season and everything was planned so that the change date would be July 1,” revealed Exeter Chief’s chairman, Tony Rowe, who was speaking with The Times.

That was before that mad bloody Russian man said he wanted to invade [Ukraine] and cause the biggest problem in the world. He’s going to put most of us into a recession.

“If we’d have known that at the time, we’d have probably thought: ‘This is a lot of money that we can ill-afford’. But, never mind. We said it, we’ve started it and the processes are in place.

“We’ve got to see it through, you know. I’ve got a really good commercial department. They went through the whole lot a long time ago and put together a great long list of things that had to be changed.

“We’ve prioritised certain things like the public-facing stuff and we’ve just got to deal with the not-so-important stuff as we go on through the season. It’s going to end up somewhere between half a million and a million pounds. It’s not just changing the logo, as such, there are other things associated with it.

“You can’t expunge history. People have asked me if we’re going to stop them wearing their old shirts – of course we’re not, but life has moved on. Some people find it [native American imagery] unacceptable and we’re happy to change.”

EDITORS PICKS: